1996 Range Rover P38 4.6 HSE Autobiography

Well after a gap of two years almost to the day, I’ve gone and bought another P38. I sold my last one prematurely as I needed the cash to buy the wife a new car.

I still had my autotrader and ebay searches active from last time so was still getting alerts through which I would gaze at thinking about the possibilities of another car.

One thought ws to buy a non runner with a head gasket (or more likely porous block) and then fix it up as a project. The problem with a non runner is getting  it back home. As we all know, a Range Rover is very heavy and the only thing that can just about tow it legally is another Range Rover with a decent braked car trailer - assuming your gross weight doesn’t exceed 3500 Kilos.

The other alternative was to pay someone to go and get it for me - but this can run to a few hundred pounds if its more than 100 miles away.

So my searches were limited to cars within 30 miles really. The one below turned up just 16 miles away and was a runner - although SORNed without tax. So I still had to get it recovered which cost £75.

Buying

So did I follow my own buyers guide? - Well of course I did and here's the list of problems:

Plus the following problems which the seller listed:

Engine seems sweet - not pressurising or getting hot.

Job list

Right now the car is off road as SORN. This is handy as it forces me to get on with the jobs that need doing and assuming its not going to snow again, I don’t really need the car on the road right now.

New items:


Shopping list


The Job list begins with the Heater O Ring replacement


January 2012 - this car is now sold. The story continues with my 3rd P38.